Posts tagged as:

auto fraud

Airbag fraud (Auto Fraud Week)

February 13, 2009

Failure to replace airbags in rebuilt cars is real and very deadly problem. NPR has a great article on airbag fraud. According to NPR, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviewed 1,446 fatal crashes and found that in 255 of those cases, the air bags had not been replaced after a previous accident. Unknown is [...]

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Get your car history from your Uncle Sam? (Auto Fraud Week)

February 13, 2009

Hopefully in the not-too-distant future you will be able to get all the same information that Carfax sells you for $2.50 from Uncle Sam. I say hopefully because there are a number of forces conspiring to prevent it.
The Anti-Car Theft Act (the Act) of 1992 directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish [...]

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Do you really need to buy a car? (Auto Fraud Week)

February 10, 2009

Before you buy a new or newer car, carefully consider your current car. Does buying a new or newer car now make sense, or should you just fix the old one? Generally, it is much cheaper to keep driving the old one.
If you bought the car on credit and have had the car less than [...]

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Carfax: know its limits (Auto Fraud Week)

February 9, 2009

Every time I hear a Cafax ad, it makes me want to scream. Carfax will not give you the “real history” of a car. What a Carfax report gives you is the reported history. There can be a big difference. What Carfax does is collect information reported to the various states’ motor vehicle departments. But [...]

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This week: guest bloggers AFFIL and Nick Slade

February 8, 2009

We are looking forward to a great week! Sarah Byrnes and Jim Campen of AFFIL will be joining us to talk lending, and Nick Slade will be joining us to talk auto fraud.
Look forward to lots of great posting from Sarah, Jim, and Nick, starting tomorrow!

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NJ car dealership pays for ripping off Kenneth Hammel

January 21, 2009

Back in 2006, 80-year old Kenneth Hammel brought his 2000 Chrysler Town & Country minivan to the Cherry Hill Triplex dealership. The dealership kept Hammel at the dealership for 12 hours while they used high-pressure sales tactics to get him to buy a 2005 Kia Sedona.
When it turned out that the Sedona’s wheelchair lift did [...]

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Car buying 101 on YouTube

June 4, 2008

Consumers for Auto Reliability and Conscious Youth Media Crew in California put together Insider Car Report a very good quick look at car buying. Its worth a look and of course there are all the link to similar clips.

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Inexpensive tool for detecting auto fraud

April 22, 2008

This inexpensive (~$15) paint thickness tester is a great way to help detect cars that may have been in accidents, no matter how squeaky-clean their title is. The paint thickness tester takes a reference value anywhere on the vehicle, and then tests other locations for uniformity. Uneven paint is a good indication that the car [...]

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CARFAX, a history with holes big enough to drive a salvaged Mac truck through

November 29, 2007

I am always a bit shocked at some of the commercials I see and hear, but being that I deal with car sales scams quite a bit the CARFAX commercials catch my attention. Maybe you have seen or heard one. It starts out warning about damaged cars and then says a CARFAX report will protect [...]

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Nick Slade joins the Caveat Emptor blog

November 29, 2007

Consumer attorney Nick Slade has joined the Caveat Emptor blog as a contributing editor. Nick has been taking consumer cases since 2000, when he refocused his practice from criminal defense to consumer law.
Nick deals with a variety of consumer issues, including auto fraud, equity stripping (also called foreclosure rescue scams), predatory lending, the Truth-In-Lending Act, [...]

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